


Best Behavior

by Nylocke



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Graduate School, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, but it needed to be done, not sure where this is going yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22873213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nylocke/pseuds/Nylocke
Summary: Anthony Stone has recently been hired as a barista at the local coffee shop. Dr. Robotnik is the difficult regular at the shop, having a reputation among the other baristas as being hard--if not impossible--to please. Stone, striving to be the best barista he can be, is determined to win the doctor over and make sure he has a good experience in the cafe.This fic is incomplete, and I'm not really sure where it'll go yet, but Stobotnik desperately needed a coffee shop au, and I desperately wanted to write one. I'm open to suggestions!
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone
Comments: 12
Kudos: 89





	Best Behavior

**Author's Note:**

> I never thought I'd find myself writing Sonic fanfiction, but the movie was just so damn good, and these two were just so damn gay. I was excited to start working on this fic as soon as I got out of the theater. Stobotnik was practically written to be a coffee shop au, and I was excited that their dynamic sparked a genuine inspiration to write fic for them. I haven't written fanfic recently, so bear with me while I get my sea legs back. I'm not sure where this will go or how quickly I'll be able to update it with my life being as busy as it is right now, but I'm excited to have this to work on when I have free time. I'll try to keep it updating fairly frequently. 
> 
> This chapter wasn't beta'd, so I apologize for any errors!

Anthony Stone gazed out the window of the little coffee shop. The sky was splashed with pinks and purples as the sun settled for the evening, the haze of humidity blurring the horizon. It was a Tuesday night, and the Rise & Grind was much slower than usual. Stone blamed it on the sweltering heat; it had been abnormally hot the past few days despite the fact that summer had only started, and Stone reasoned that most people probably weren’t in the mood for coffee.

He hadn’t been working there long. It was a summer job he had picked up two weeks before, and he was finally through the training period. He had picked up the necessary skills pretty quickly, and he was proud that he had already managed to get decently good at latte art. He took pride in his work, even if it was just a summer job--he took pride in most things he did regardless of what they were, throwing himself into whatever job or project that currently occupied him. If he was going to be a barista, he was going to be the best barista he could possibly be, and that was that. 

“Can you hold down the fort for a bit? I’m going on a break,” his manager, Michelle, called from the other side of the store.

“Sure,” he replied, and she gave him a thumbs-up before disappearing into the back room. He glanced around, looking for something that needed to be done. He picked up a rag and began wiping the countertops absentmindedly.

The bells on the door chimed, and Stone straightened up from where he had been cleaning. He smiled brightly, flashing his white teeth at the customer entering the shop. “Good evening!” he said with his best customer service voice, his tone jumping up half an octave. He winced internally, afraid he’d laid it on a bit too thick.

The man didn’t seem terribly impressed with him regardless, casting a scrutinizing gaze from beneath thick, black eyebrows. His intricately groomed mustache twitched on his lip as he sniffed, something between a sneer and a smirk. He crossed to the counter, and Stone noted that he didn’t seem to be hot despite wearing black pants and a button up beneath a blazer in this heat. It seemed to be a tailored blazer, and Stone got the sense that this man was fairly well-off based on his sharp fashion. 

“I suppose it is a good evening,” the man replied, the neutral statement enunciated sharply. “A latte, made with almond milk. Extra hot.”

Stone took note of his order on a fresh paper cup with a nod. “Will that be all for you, sir?”

“Yes,” the man said, hardly waiting for Stone to finish his question. He had already slid his money across the counter, exact change counted out and organized by coin. Stone wondered if he had prepared it in his pocket before he had come in. 

“Thank you,” he said, putting the cash in the register. “I’ll have that right out for you.”

The man had already begun crossing to the other end of the bar to wait for his latte, so Stone hurried over to the espresso machine and began steaming the almond milk. He supposed the man must be a regular customer at the corner cafe, judging by how quickly he had moved through the encounter. Stone normally would have tried to strike up a conversation, especially since the man was the only customer in the store, but he got the sense that this man had absolutely no interest in making small talk with him. Stone focused his attention on making the latte as efficiently as he could, and within moments he was handing the drink across the counter to the mustachioed man. 

“Here’s your latte, mister--”

“Doctor,” the man corrected with a snarl, and Stone felt his chest clench. 

“My mistake. Sorry, doctor,” Stone corrected genuinely. The man seemed to pick up on his sincerity, and he gave Stone another sneer-smirk while smoothing the end of his mustache between two fingers. He seemed rather like a caricature to Stone, something about him a little too on the nose to not make Stone wonder what kind of person he was. 

The man took his drink with a subtle nod towards Stone and spun on his heel, exiting the coffee shop with a strangely succinct flourish, somehow dramatic and efficient at the same time. Stone found himself staring at the door for a moment even after the doctor had left, still entranced by his exquisite strangeness. 

“Wow, that’s the nicest Doctor Rob has ever been,” Michelle marvelled from the door. Stone turned to look at her over his shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s usually a total elitist asshole every time he comes in here,” Michelle elaborated, tying her apron behind her back. “He’s got, like, three PhDs or something like that, and if you get him to talk at all, he just brags about how smart he is.” She rolled her eyes with a huff. “He’s the kind of asshole that tells you that a machine could do your job way better than you’re doing it.” 

“Does he come here a lot?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s in here at least once a day. Sometimes more. I think he was on vacation or something. If guys like that even take vacations,” she added with a laugh. “Maybe he was out of town on business.”

“Oh,” Stone replied, returning to his counter-cleaning. “Do you know what he does?”

Michelle shrugged. “I think he’s an engineer or something. He had a smartwatch before they were on the market. Dylan swears he designed them, but I don’t know about that. I guess it would explain why he had it, though. I think he just made it himself for fun or something. He would have bragged about it if he was the designer.”

“Oh,” Stone said again. “You said his name was Rob?”

Another eye roll. “Yeah, his last name is Robotnik. Ridiculous, right? I think he must have had it legally changed or something. Like, how on the nose can you get?”

“Yeah,” Stone replied. “I see what you mean.”

********

The next time the doctor visited the store during Stone’s shift, Stone was ready. Some incomprehensible impulse had arisen in him since their last encounter, and he was determined to make a connection with Doctor Robotnik. He supposed it arose from the same impulse to be the best at his job--especially since such a large part of his job focused on connecting with customers. Coffee shops, he thought, should be a welcoming space for everyone, somewhere positive for each individual customer. He was determined to give that positive experience to everyone, and, perhaps, especially the doctor, considering that it would be a bit of a personal challenge for Stone. He tended to find ways to challenge himself in almost everything he did, and this job, it seemed, was no exception. 

Stone straightened as the doctor entered the store, once again sharply dressed in a black blazer and slacks that didn’t seem to bother him despite the humid heat outside. Smiling as genuinely as he could, Stone flashed his white teeth at the man once again, but not too much so as to seem disingenuous. “Good evening!” he said with some measured tone between customer-service and genuine delight at the doctor’s visit. 

The doctor fixed him with yet another scrutinizing stare, the same sneer-smirk twisting beneath his mustache. 

“You must be new here,” the doctor remarked, the sharpness in his tone oddly casual somehow. “The last latte you made me was seventeen degrees too cold.” He paused as he approached the counter, his eyes never breaking contact with Stone’s as he closed in on him. “Perhaps you don’t remember, but I had asked for it  _ extra _ hot. I’d like the same thing, but make sure that you follow my  _ painfully _ simple instructions this time.” The cash was already on the counter, exact change counted out and organized.

“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again. I’ll have that out for you right away.”

Robotnik gave him a curt nod, his eyes searching Stone’s face for a moment before he moved away, stalking to the end of the bar with his long legs. Stone hurried to steam the milk, careful to froth it for just the right amount of time to get the perfect layer of foam to rest on top. He watched intently as the temperature gauge rose, letting it steam to be exactly seventeen degrees hotter than the last latte. He poured a neat, fairly intricate design into the latte with the milk, having to stop himself from beaming with pride as he handed the drink across the counter.

“Here you are, doctor,” Stone said with a smile. “If it doesn’t meet your expectations, I can remake it for you.”

Robotnik hesitated for a moment, seeming to be a bit caught off guard by the offer. Eyebrow arching, he raised the cup to his lips, taking a delicate sip. His face remained stoic, sharp as always, but he tilted his head to the side and gave a short, neutral hum. 

“This is acceptable,” he said, fixing Stone with another scrutinizing gaze before turning sharply and leaving the cafe with another efficiently dramatic flourish. 

“Wow,” Michelle chimed in over his shoulder. “That was almost a compliment. That’s high praise, coming from that guy.”

Stone laughed, some mix of relief and pride welling within him. Perhaps he was jumping the gun a bit, but he felt that if anyone would be able to win the doctor over, it would be him.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this with "Where Evil Grows" on loop for hours, but the title is from "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," which was another one of Robotnik's playlists. 
> 
> I'm just kind of rolling with this fic at the moment. I'm not entirely sure where it'll go from here, so I'm open to suggestions! 
> 
> tumblr: legend-tripper


End file.
